Eurovision flag ban angers Palestinians

A senior Palestinian leader has asked Eurovision organizers to reverse a ban on the Palestinian flag at this year’s edition of the song contest in Stockholm, which starts on May 10.

Saeb Erakat, second-in-command of the Palestine Liberation Organization, called the decision “totally biased and unacceptable,” in a letter to Jean-Paul Philippot, head of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Deutsche Welle reported.

“We call upon you to immediately revoke this shameful decision,” Erekat wrote. Palestinian statehood is recognized by 138 countries.

The EBU’s list of banned flags was published online last week. Among them were the flags of Northern Cyprus, Kosovo, Spain’s Basque region and ISIL.

Spain reacted angrily over the inclusion of the Basque regional flag on the list, with Spanish Foreign Minister José García-Margallo saying: “It is a constitutional flag and cannot be in that list.”

The EBU apologized in a Facebook post, saying the list was a draft that had mistakenly been released. “The document was not intended to be published,” the EBU wrote.

Eurovision spokesman Dave Goodman told AFP: “The flag policy is not aimed against specific territories or organizations, and certainly does not compare them to each other.”

Other flags and banners, including those that contain a commercial message or a statement the organizers consider offensive, discriminatory, unsuitable, political or religious in nature, remain banned.